Movies & DVDs

In the Capraesque spirit of looking back on last year in search ofÂ bright spots amid the gloom, kudos are in order for Berkeley Rep. This news just in from our friends at the theater,Â who are understandably proud of theÂ raves they racked up last year. First off, Mary Zimmerman’s dulcet fairytale “The Arabian Nights”Â has sold out and can’t be extended because theÂ production has to hit the road forÂ Chicago and other parts east. Secondly, “Passing Strange” continues to drawÂ acclaim to the adventurous East Bay troupe. The New York Times ranked it in its top 10 for last year andÂ Spike Leeâ€™s film of the tuner is slated to debut at theÂ Sundance Film Festival next Friday, January 16.Â Attaboy!

WIG OUT! Dahlings, I have huge news in this business we call show. John Cameron Mitchell, the genius behind the glam-rock-diva-drag-icon Hedwig, as in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” as in the coolest alt-rock musical ever,Â a show that makes “Rent” look like “Murder She Wrote” in the hipness department, is coming to San Francisco for V-day weekend for “Origin of Love” at the Mission’s Victoria Theatre (home of the kickass 2003 production of “Hedwig.”) JCM very rarely performs the Hedwig score anymore so this is great news for all of us Hedwig heads for whom that tuner remains a mind-altering drug capable of inducing euphoria through any iteration. Live on stage. Movie on DVD. CD. No matter. Me, I’ll take my Hedwig fix any way I can get it. Sigh.

OMG! Disney’s tween pop culture juggernaut “High School Musical,” the Ice Tour is skating on back into San Jose. Troy, Gabriella and the gang doing line-dancing crazy eights.Â Who could ask for anything more? LOL, no?Â Seriously, I’d love to hear whatÂ the text-generation really thinks ofÂ the ice show iteration of HSM. Is it a must-see? Or lamer than math class? Discuss. Also, check out my live video chat with HSM diva Arielle Jacobs here.

Â A moment of silence for Harold Pinter. The Nobel Prize winning playwright who transformed the way we think aboutÂ language in the theater, from the ominousness of the legendary Pinter pause to the damning nature of mindless chatter, died Wednesday after a battle with cancer. He was 78. The iconic British playwright, the man whose work gave birth to the term “Pinteresque,”Â left behind a dizzying body of work that revolutionized modern theater from “The Birthday Party” to Â “The Homecoming.” A genius with ambiguity in a world often all too desperate for answers, Pinter left us speechless time and again. A vocal critic of American foreign policy and indeed politics at large, he never gave us the succor we often from the stage,Â instead forcingÂ us to face humanity not as we would wish it to be but as it is. Terrorism, greed, violence and theÂ elliptical natureÂ of language, the impossibility of authentic communication amid the din of 24/7 newsfeeds,Â ring out in his canon as his characters fight for meaning in the face of absurdity (i.e. life).Â As he put it, “You are in no man’s land. Which never moves, which never changes, which never grows older, but which remains forever icy and silent.”

Money, money, money, always sunny, in a rich man’s world. No, I don’t just have recession on the brain. I’m just channeling my inner ABBA-head in celebration of the DVD release of the “Mamma Mia!” movie. OK, so I’m a little late here (it dropped Tuesday) but I just got back from vacation and catch-up is a killer, no? The bottomline is this is the ultimate stocking stuffer for guilty pleasure seekers. We’re talking Colin Firth (yum!), Pierce Brosnan (I know he can’t sing! I don’t care! Deal with it!) and of course a thoroughly brainless singalong ABBA score. Oh, yeah and there’s some underexposed actress at the center of it all. By the way, you can also catch her Streepness in another musical-made-into-a-movie out right now (“Doubt”). Only it’s not exactly a holiday feel-good type of picture (priests, molestation, you do the math). So if you’re looking for a little mental R&R from the stress-fest that is life today, why not dig it the dancing queen? Give yourself the gift of Fernando, girlfriend.

Love! Valour! Compassion! Critically-acclaimed playwright (not to mention quite genial fellow) Terrence McNally will be holding forth at San Jose State University this Wednesday as part of a Center for Literary Arts program. With a career spanning from“Ragtime” and “Master Class” to “Dead Man Walking,” McNally is one of the most prolific and popular playwrights working in the American theater today. He’s sparked controversy (“Corpus Christi”), mastered musical theater and generally proved to be a man of great importance.

Red alert! William Shatner has invited George Takei to appear on his Biography Channel talk show, “Shatner’s Raw Nerve.” As Trekkies everywhere know by now, the actors most famous as Kirk and Sulu have been feuding for ages, most recently after the Shat-man accused Takei of not inviting him to Takei’s September wedding to Brad Altman. Takei says Shatner was invited; Shatner says he didn’t receive the invitation. In his latest online video screed, Shatner says: “George has been mean to me for a long time — I mean, decades and decades.” Ouch! You don’t need a Vulcan mind meld to know that Takei had better watch his back if he does decide to beam into such hostile TV territory. Set phasers on kill.

Letâ€™s do the Time Warp again! Ok, so Halloween may be over but itâ€™s always the right time of year for a little hot patootie, no? The â€œRocky Horror Tribute Showâ€ is now out on DVD to the delight of cheesy sci-fi aficianados (read: nerds) everywhere. This is a stark concert-style gig that is definitely not recommended for newbies. If youâ€™ve never seen the real deal, I recommend taking in a midnight showing first. However, die-hard Rocky Horror heads will bask in the kitschy glow of Anthony Stewart Head (thatâ€™s Giles to all you Scoobies out there) who has been dubbed one of the best Franks ever. Weâ€™re talking 65 minutes of cult-hit goodness here, people. Grrr! Arrgh!

Say it ain’t so, Tina! Gossip has it that Tina Fey, the Lucille Ball of her generation, is planning on retiring her now legendary impersonation of Alaska governor Sarah Palin so she can get back to her day job on “30 Rock.” I, and surely legions of devout SNL fans, must object to this lapse in comedic judgement. Since Palin isn’t likely to fall off the political radar screen for many years to come, I think it’s Fey’s patriotic duty to take time out from the sitcom gig when it comes to a matter of national snarkiness. Am I perhaps taking this whole comedy thing too seriously? You betcha.

Welcome to theÂ night beloved by fright fans everywhere. Tonight we celebrate the pagan festival of Samhain, one of the high holy days of theÂ ancient CelticÂ calendar (as I learned last night from that font of creepster lore and hot boys known as “Supernatural“), with the ritual wearing of the masks (the demon can’t eat ya if he can’t see ya) and the eating of the candy (offerings to placate theÂ devils at your door). But if all that crass commercialism starts to get ya down, why not reconnect with the deeply dark and disturbing roots of the holiday with a little video gorefest?

Here are my top 5Â intensely subjective andÂ thoroughly quixotic recommendations to get your goosebump on tonite:Â the masterpiece “Nosferatu,” the culture vulture’s answer to horror, F.W. Murnau’s highly stylized vamp remains unparalleled in the genre,Â the total schlock fest “Evil Dead,” starring if-chins-could-kill Bruce Campbell,Â “Shaun of the Dead,” the witty black comedy of errors (and zombies!), “Dead and Breakfast,” a musical comedy meets the undeadÂ movie that had this theater critic chuckling amid theÂ disemboweling and (how did you guess???) the “Fog.” (the original, mind you, not the excreable remake.)

Devoted readers of this blog know that yours truly prizes particularÂ chapter of the John Carpenter canon over even aÂ classicÂ such as Â “Halloween.” Cursed leprous pirates go looking for some serious payback (not to mention Adrienne Barbeau) in this Northern California gothic. Lest you think me some sort ofÂ shallow slasher movie nutjob, let me also point out that there is an element of political and historical critique to this littleÂ gem that puts a whole new spin on the whole “distribution of wealth” debate.Â Yar!